Dieter Kassel

23.11.2017

A startup disrupting the prescription drug business in Africa is getting major Silicon Valley support

MPharma manages prescription drug inventory for pharmacies and their suppliers in four African countries. It provides inventory financing to clients and is using its growing purchasing power to help lower the cost of prescription drugs for patients.Weiterlesen

Auf dem Weg zur Superpflanze?

Rebecca Winkels & Nico Dannenberger

30.10.2017

Agroforestry: An increasingly popular solution for a hot, hungry world

Agroforestry integrates trees, shrubs, and crops in a system that functions well together — it covers over 1 billion hectares of land worldwide and its best known examples include shade grown coffee and chocolate. It mitigates climate change through carbon sequestration and also benefits biodiversity, water cycling, food security, and more.Weiterlesen

Maria Mayböck

19.10.2017

Rural food security, subsistence agriculture, and seasonality

Many of the world’s food-insecure and undernourished people are smallholder farmers in developing countries. This is especially true in Africa. There is an urgent need to make smallholder agriculture and food systems more nutrition-sensitive.Weiterlesen

Diemut Klärner

Transplanting Edited Pig Organs Into Humans

In a striking advance that helps open the door to organ transplants from animals, researchers have created gene-edited piglets cleansed of viruses that might cause disease in humans.Weiterlesen

Gina Colata

07.08.2017

Gene editing found unexpected breakthroughs

Biotechnology is undergoing its most significant scientific revolution since the invention of genetic engineering in the 1970s, as researchers apply new methods of “gene editing” to manipulate DNA with unprecedented speed and precision.Weiterlesen

Clive Cookson

27.07.2017

Foregone benefits of food crop improvements

A number of new crops have been developed that address important traits of particular relevance for smallholder farmers in Africa. Scientists, policy makers, and other stakeholders have raised concerns that the approval process for these new crops causes delays that are often scientifically unjustified.Weiterlesen

Thomas Magenheim

24.07.2017

New Players and New Tools in the Bio-economy

Almost every year, the International Consortium of Applied Bio-economy Research (ICABR), was meeting in beautiful Ravello in Italy to present new research results on the economics and policies of agricultural biotechnology, biofuels and the environment. This year, we moved the ICABR meeting to Berkeley.Weiterlesen

Denise Snieguole Wachter

No evolution in thinking in ‘Food Evolution’

For many years, I’ve studied environmental and science policy, looking into how governments, industry and NGOs jointly help find ways toward greater sustainability.Weiterlesen

Alastair Iles

14.07.2017

Is 'Food Evolution' propaganda?

Food Evolution is a documentary about GMOs. It is an excellent film that mixes a few compelling stories with interesting interviews that inform viewers without losing their attention. As someone that has worked in agricultural biotechnology for 30 years, I find the contents accurate and insightful.Weiterlesen

Janet Binder

03.12.2015

Scientists Seek Moratorium on Edits to Inheritable Human Genome

An international group of scientists meeting in Washington called on Thursday for what would, in effect, be a moratorium on making inheritable changes to the human genome. The group said it would be “irresponsible to proceed” until the risks could be better assessed and until there was “broad societal consensus about the appropriateness” of any proposed change. Weiterlesen

Nicholas Wade

07.07.2017

Feed the World Without Killing the Planet

As it is practiced today, agriculture is one of the biggest environmental offenders – yet it is necessary for our survival. Agriculture contributes one-third of greenhouse gas emissions, uses 70% of freshwater resources, and harms wildlife. How can we balance demand for agricultural products with biodiversity protection?Weiterlesen

Claire Kremen

03.07.2017

Where sustainable food meets fashion

Italbugs is preparing to market a high-protein flour derived from silkworms, a by-product of the textile industry, that is suitable for use in sports nutrition and bakery products.Weiterlesen

Bilal Bag

28.06.2017

New beer boosts health

Novel probiotic beer boosts immunity and improves gut health. Beer lovers may soon have a gut-friendly drink to raise a toast to, thanks to the creation of a novel probiotic sour beer by a team of brewing researchers from the National University of Singapore.Weiterlesen

Johanna Roth

Jeder soll mitdebattieren

Tanja Traxler

22.06.2017

Do your homework before you apply

When I arrived in Berkeley in the 1973, the biggest show in town was the Watergate hearing. I admired the brilliant journalists uncovering the Watergate cover-up, and it led me to further admire America. Weiterlesen

Sylvia Jost

12.01.2017

Genetically Modified Crops and Their Role in International Development

Since their commercial introduction in the mid-1990s, genetically modified (GM) crops have stirred public debates. In particular, the scaled use of GM crops raised concerns regarding their potential environmental and health risks and patenting of life, as well as over multinational corporations’ domination of food chains. However, research shows that these crops are safe and can contribute to sustainable production growth and food security worldwide. Weiterlesen

Klimawandel: Wo bleibt das rettende Genfood?

Annika Joeres

17.10.2016

UN: Climate change will push millions into hunger

Farmers urgently need help to adapt their methods of growing food if the world is to curb greenhouse gas emissions and prevent climate change pushing millions into hunger and poverty, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday. Weiterlesen

Alex Whiting

22.09.2016

Bayer – Monsanto: win-win or lose-lose?

The take-over of Monsanto by Bayer has initiated a debate about the implications for the agricultural sector: in the EU, the USA, and developing countries. One of the major concerns is the increase in the concentration in the seed and pesticide sector. Will this be to the disadvantage of the agricultural sector? Weiterlesen

Justus Wesseler

26.08.2016

Beans: A mighty tool for food security

Pulse seeds are going to be crucial to our global fight for food security, particularly in the face of climate change. Weiterlesen

Mahmoud Solh

28.07.2016

Female scientists brainstorm on how to boost sector

Female agricultural scientists and farmers in Nigeria under the aegis of Nigerian Women in Agricultural Research and Development (NiWARD) are seeking better ways to improve the fortunes of the sector.Weiterlesen

Victoria Njoku

15.06.2016

Globalisation of agrifood systems

The globalisation of agrifood systems is a mega-trend with potentially profound nutritional implications. This paper describes various facets of this globalisation process and reviews studies on nutritional effects with a particular focus on developing countries. Weiterlesen

Global Food Summit

25.09.2017

The denial of climate change, and resistance to agricultural biotechnology

I first encountered the debate on climate change in the 1980s when I helped to organize a workshop at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Our aim was to discuss the findings and implications of emerging research on climate change. As I recall there was not yet a consensus among meteorologists and other scientists about interpreting observed changes, but by the early 1990s most scientists accepted that humans contributed significantly to global warming, and importantly, that it is a major risk to humanity and that it requires a managed, political response.Weiterlesen

David Zilberman

21.09.2015

Migration crisis is the canary in the mine on climate change

Conflict in the Middle East forces people to flee, but so does drought, destroying crops and livelihoods. We must invest in science for sustainable agriculture. Weiterlesen

Mahmoud Solh

17.07.2014

Why roasted meat could cause cancer

Cases of various forms of cancer, the deadly disease seen by many as death sentence, have been on the rise. Although experts have not been able to pinpoint the exact cause or causes of cancer, some believe that diet could be playing a very important role in cancer formation.Weiterlesen